Chapter 18

Chapter 18

A New Type of Crazy

Jin Myeong lit the fire of the gas burner.

Click!

Shiiik...

The corner of Jin Myeong’s mouth slightly rolled up as if interesting.

The worst ingredients.

And a crude stove.

“...”

But because of that it was even more fun.

If no teeth, with gums, if firepower is insufficient, fill it with qi.

He carefully extended the internal energy drawn up very finely from the dantian along the wrist to the end of the frying pan.

The energy mixed with fire draws up the firepower.

Dalgeurak!

Charrrk!

Eggs were dropped onto the oil heating the pan, and immediately ham and vegetables were fried.

Every time Jin Myeong’s wrist moved, a light sound echoed inside the narrow kitchen.

Charuk!

Jin Myeong lightly tossed the frying pan into the air.

Then the clumped cold rice lumps shattered in the air, perfectly coated with egg and landed on the bottom.

The pure white rice grains were instantly dyed golden.

As a finish he slightly circled soy sauce on the edge of the pan and lightly burned it.

Chiiik!

His own secret technique of covering the limits of cheap ingredients with strong fire taste.

There he very finely scattered the seasoning powder of this world and gathered the floating flavors of vegetables and ham into one.

Tadak, tadadak!

The moment the fried rice was completed.

The smell that had gathered inside the pan began spreading explosively beyond the kitchen to the entire PC room hall.

“······Eh?”

The first to react was the large-bodied customer who had ordered the fried rice.

His nostrils that were glaring at the monitor while getting irritated flared like crazy.

“Crazy, what smell is this?”

It wasn’t the smell of the frozen fried rice he usually ate.

Savory yet deep that he was smelling for the first time...

A feeling as if the surrounding air changed to the extent it felt like coming to a high-end restaurant.

And even the remaining two customers who were immersed in their respective games paused and looked around.

“Wha, what? This smell form is crazy? Fried rice···?”

“Hey, did you order fried rice? Wow, shit··· the smell went crazy. What on earth?”

All three customers stopped the game and half-raised their bodies from the chairs.

Their gazes were fixed toward the narrow kitchen inside the counter.

And a moment later.

Tak.

A fried rice plate was placed in front of the large man.

Not the usual part-timer but an unfamiliar youth with an indifferent expression.

“Eh? Did the part-timer change shifts? A face I’m seeing for the first time.”

The customer asked while tilting his head, but Jin Myeong turned around with a swish without any answer and disappeared toward the counter.

The customer was dumbfounded at Jin Myeong’s appearance then soon looked down at the fried rice placed in front of his eyes as if entranced.

“Crazy... the smell is really...!”

Moreover what about the appearance.

Each and every rice grain was delicately coated in oil as if wrapped in a thin and transparent glass film.

Golden gloss.

It was a perfect visual that exploded appetite.

Gulp!

The customer picked up the spoon as if entranced.

Without hesitation he largely scooped up the golden fried rice and pushed it into his mouth without restraint.

Umul.

Both eyes widened as if they would burst.

“······!!!”

At that moment, he fell into a shock as if all the hairs of the whole body stood on end.

Tuk.

The hand slipped from the mouse he was holding with a tuk.

His game character in the screen received the enemy’s attack, sprayed blood and collapsed noisily.

But even such a situation didn’t draw his interest.

To begin with a feeling as if all the sounds of the world were receding distantly.

‘Th, this is what on earth...!!’

The moment it touched the tongue, the clumped rice grains scattered pleasantly into every corner of the mouth as if they had gained vitality and were dancing.

The sensation felt every time the fried rice was chewed.

The outside was crispy but inside a chewy and moist sweet taste burst out.

“...”

An overwhelming umami that was absolutely unbelievable to feel from a few thousand won PC room fried rice.

“Ujeok ujeok! Gulp! Heueok···!”

The customer began moving the spoon like crazy like a person out of his mind.

While pushing the fried rice into his throat out of his mind, he continuously spat out exclamations.

“Cr, crazy··· really gone crazy, this··· wow···”

At that appearance the friends who were playing games side by side in the next seat turned their heads with a swish.

“Hey, what are you doing? How many days did you starve? Why are you eating while having a seizure like this?”

“Wow, shit··· but the smell is really crazy? Hey, give me just one bite. Let’s see the taste.”

The friend swallowed saliva and stretched his hand toward the spoon.

But the customer who was scooping the fried rice was startled and hugged the plate with his forearm.

“Ah shit, get lost! No! It’s mine, don’t touch!”

“No, why are you so serious over one spoon of rice? Crazy guy, just give one bite!”

“No! You order and eat yourself!”

The friend let out a dejected hollow laugh as if absurd.

“Ah, that pig bastard really! Eyes rolled over eating.”

The friends poured curses while smacking their lips but he didn’t even pretend to hear.

Dalgeurak!

Dalgeurak!

Bbakbbak!

The customer who emptied the plate like doing dishes in an instant turned toward the counter side with a face sunk in shock and regret while panting.

“Th, there! Part-timer, no teacher! One more fried rice here, no two more!!”

At his shout the friends beside also raised their hands not to be outdone and shouted.

“There! Give me one fried rice too!”

“I want to order too! Me too!”

They shouted making a fuss.

But...

Inside the counter was empty.

The appearance of that new part-timer with the indifferent expression just now was already nowhere to be seen.

“Where did he go?!”

“There!”

“Part-timer teacher!”

At that time.

The corner behind the counter.

The original night part-timer came out walking sloppily while fixing his pants waist.

“Ahyu, thought I’d die from constipation··· sniff sniff. Eh?”

The steps of the part-timer who came out of the bathroom stopped dead for a moment.

The tremendous smell filling the PC room hall.

“What, this smell···?”

While the part-timer was sniffing into the air with a bewildered expression, the customers shouted toward the counter.

“There! Make the fried rice quickly! Three here!”

“No, four! Make four!”

At the customers’ urging the part-timer approached the counter with a dumbfounded face.

“Yes? Fried rice? Who ordered rice?”

The part-timer hurriedly checked the POS screen, but nothing was stamped in the order history.

Moreover he had been locked in the bathroom because his stomach hurt until just now, what on earth did that customer eat and is holding out an empty bowl.

“Not that side! Where did that person from earlier go?”

The customer asked while peeking inside the counter as if frustrated.

“That person from earlier?”

“The new part-timer who was cooking until just now! The person who brought the fried rice!”

“···New part-timer? Who? I’m working alone···?”

At the part-timer’s words bewilderment floated on the faces of the customers and friends.

“Yes? No, I’m saying he brought the fried rice just now? Don’t you see this empty plate here?”

The customer showed the empty plate with an excited face.

“...”

The part-timer entered the narrow counter kitchen as if he couldn’t believe it.

Indeed...

A strong fried rice smell remained as if someone had used this place, and traces of use remained on various cooking utensils too.

“Eh? Did someone really use it?”

Goosebumps rose instantly on the part-timer’s forearm.

While he went to the bathroom, someone arbitrarily entered even inside the counter and stirred up the kitchen.

“Thi, thief...?”

The part-timer turned pale and hurriedly approached the cash register and opened it.

Deolkeong!

The money drawer connected to the POS was firmly locked.

He hurriedly inserted the key, opened the drawer with a deolkeok and quickly scanned the bill and coin compartments.

“...”

But there was no special change.

Just in case he counted the money, but it was the same.

To begin with a place where business doesn’t go well.

So most of the money put in for change.

These days cash use is not much so the amount is obvious.

Anyway the money wasn’t gone.

This time he thoroughly searched even the safe under the counter, the expensive cigarette display, and the warehouse side.

But there was no trace of anything disappearing at all.

‘Didn’t steal money either, and items are the same? Then why on earth did he enter someone else’s counter?’

A bizarre situation he absolutely couldn’t understand.

The part-timer immediately turned on the CCTV recording program of the counter main PC.

He rewound the time a few minutes and played the screen.

“...!”

In the monitor screen.

One unfamiliar youth with ice cream in his mouth suddenly entered the PC room.

He didn’t look for an empty seat and turn on the game but just stood behind the customer who was playing games and quietly watched the monitor screen.

Then when the customer said something, the youth turned his body with a seuk and slowly walked inside the counter.

“...?!”

The part-timer brought his face close to the screen.

The youth passed the counter and entered the kitchen.

Then he lit the fire, grabbed the frying pan, shook the remaining cold rice with one egg and the remaining vegetables and began cooking.

“...”

In the screen, the youth’s movements were bizarrely fast and dynamic.

The form of tossing the small frying pan and flying the rice grains in the air was not ordinary.

“Co, cook?”

Soon after completing the fried rice in an instant, he put the rice on the plate, indifferently put it down with a tuk on the customer’s table, and left the PC room door without lingering and disappeared.

It was an extremely cool and natural exit.

“······.”

The part-timer lost his words in dumbfoundedness and blankly looked at it.

‘What???’

He really didn’t steal money, nor touch items.

A passerby suddenly entered, fried fried rice in someone else’s PC room kitchen and left chicly?

“Th, this is what new type of crazy······.”

***

Jin Myeong who came out of the PC room again faced the cool night air and moved slow steps toward home.

A very faint smile was spreading on the corner of his mouth.

“...”

In fact for the past few days, Jin Myeong had been accumulating mental fatigue more greatly than physical fatigue.

Repeating only one dish of jajangmyeon like a machine all day was no different from hard labor for the number one chef of the Central Plains.

Uniform cooking with no change in the ingredients handled, no variation in the rhythm of handling fire.

It was far too monotonous to fill his boiling desire for exploration.

The fried rice he made at an absurd place in such a moment was a light prank but it fully opened his blocked breath.

The process of covering the limits of cheap ingredients with extreme technique and internal energy.

Though a short moment, it awakened the primitive joy of cooking again for Jin Myeong.

Even so he couldn’t increase the menu right away.

The hands at Jin Myeong Gak now were only himself and the parents, just three.

To handle the customers pouring in explosively every day like now, he had to minimize the cooking movement line and raise the turnover rate to the maximum.

For that, a single menu like now is the best.

If he increased the menu even by one here, the parents’ burden would clearly increase.

‘I am one who silently endured even in the Blood Cult’s royal kitchen where blood wind blew for decades. The boredom of repeating just one menu is nothing.’

Just when Jin Myeong who was organizing his thoughts entered the familiar alley entrance.

“······?”

Jin Myeong’s steps stopped.

The alley near the restaurant.

A sports car emitting an extraordinary aura was parked there, and someone sitting in the driver’s seat.

Watching that appearance, he narrowed his brow.

And his gaze immediately moved to the silhouette of one man standing beside the sports car.

“Eum...?!”

The man sitting in the driver’s seat was none other than Namgung Wi.

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